Contemporary ex-pat author trying to figure it all out.

Happy First Anniversary, Life After Joe!

Well, here we are. Life After Joe is exactly one-year-old today. To start, what I wouldn’t do to go back and talk to Courtney in July 2015… No, I don’t think you understand the limits I would go to correct the path I was on… The things I would warn her of and the plans I would put in place. As you’re probably aware, my books are all on a bit of an imposed ‘time out’ from Amazon at the moment. While I hit some big milestones at the start of my adventure with Joe, I’ve been extremely hands off for nearly half the time the book has been out. And I should feel worse about that fact, but as this is the eighth book I’ve released, my attitude has morphed into kind of a ‘just go do your thing book, I don’t have the energy to make sure you figure things out.’ This, by the way, is an absolutely terrible way to go about marketing a book.

Should you want to help celebrate the birthday of Joe, it is available to buy here and for a free preview, here.

And yet…

There’s some little milestones out there that make me think this year wasn’t a total disaster:

Even though it’s not perfect (sensing a theme here, are we?), I did finally release a hard copy of Joe (and yes, this is the first time I’ve announced it).

The reviews are for the most part…quite good. I’m rocking 4.0 on Goodreads and a 4.3 on Amazon (both out of 5 stars).

What hopes do I have for Year 2? Sadly, not that many. If I get control back of the book (in February 2017), I would like to do another free listing on Amazon. More than anything, I want to KENP pages back. I was starting to do quite well before the rug was yanked out from under me. My optimistic self (as of February 16, 2016) thought all these pages read would generate some great word of mouth and reviews.

So, today is a bit melancholy. I know there are other things I’ve done since July 2015, things I can be very proud of, but I’m not going to lie and say I’m rather disappointed from where I thought I would be with my book.